Along France's Atlantic coast, Germany built vast concrete bunkers for its U-boats during the Second World War. Bombers could not break them, and today they are museums, art galleries, naval stores and silent ruins.
On the cliffs near Cap Gris-Nez, four huge concrete casemates once held German naval guns that could hit the English coast. One of them is now a museum, and the rest still stand in the fields.
On a farm clifftop above a Normandy beach, a lone villa, a pillbox and a bunker mark the site of the German radar stolen in 1942. The land is private, but a free memorial a short walk away tells the story, and the beach below is where the raiders left.
On 6 June 1944 the Western Allies landed in Normandy from a fleet of nearly 7,000 vessels, after a year of planning, a major deception campaign and a one-day weather delay. By the end of the day all five beachheads were won, but at a heavy cost, and most of the day's objectives were still ahead.
On the morning of 6 June 1944, 225 U.S. Rangers climbed a 30-metre cliff in Normandy under fire to capture a German gun battery. The guns were not in their casemates. Today the cratered headland is a memorial site, and a restoration project is under way to protect it from erosion.
